Jacob s



I (NoMode1.)

' J. S. GIBBS.

INCANDESCENT ELECTRIC LAMP SOCKET.

No. 477,407. Patented June 21, 1892;

UNITED.l STATES!Y ATENT' OFFICE.

JACOB S. GIBBS, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE PERKINS ELECTRIC SWITCH AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

INCANDESCENT-ELECTRIC-LAMP SOCKET..

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 477,407, dated J une 21, 1892.

Application filed February 27, 1892, Serial No. 423,004. (No model.)

To' all whom it may concern:

Be itknown that I, JACOB S. GIBBS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lamp-Sockets, of vwhich the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

The invention relates to the class of sockets for incandescent electric lamps which have a key for making and breaking the circuit, the object being to provide such a socket with few parts, cheaply constructed and readily assembled, having a smoothly-operating key mechanism that is positive in its contacts and quick in its break.

To this end the invention resides in a socket consisting of a shell with a single division of insulating material supporting conductors adapted to be joined with circuit-wires and with the connections of a lamp, one of the conductors bearing a sliding piece and a key, the block of which is adapted to open and close the circuit, as'more particularly hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a central vertical section of the socket. Fig. 2 is a similar View on aplane at right angles to the plane of the first figure. Fig. 3 is a plan of the socket with the cap removed.

In the views, 1 indicates the shell of the socket, which is formed cylindrically of any suitable material, usually sheet-brass. Held to one end of which by any common means is a cap 2, having the ordinary opening for the circuit-wires. A division of any suitable insulating material 3 is held about the middle of the shell by any convenient means, as by the upwardly-extending strips 4t, secured to the insulation and having in their ends screws that pass through slots in the upper edgeA of the shell, also through the lower edge of the cap to hold that in place. Secured to the upper side of the insulationat the center is a yoke-shaped piece 5 of conducting material, between the arms of which slides a piece 6, preferably also yoke-shaped, with its arms folded around the edges of its support. In perforations in the arms of the yoke 5 is held a key-spindle 7 with a handle outside the although it may be bent from a round rod or tube, is connectedwith a screw 9, projecting from the other side of the insulation and adapted to be screwed into a part of the base of a lamp connected with one'of the leads to the filament, as in a common style of lamp for which this socket, as represented, is designed. A spring 10 holds the sliding piece 6 with a yielding pressure in contact with the key-block. Y,

A contact 0r binding post 11, secured to the upper'side of the insulation and adapted to be joined with a circuit-wire by any common means, is connected with a ring 12 on the opposite side of the insulation, which ring is intended to make contact with a conductor on thelamp-base, to which one of the filamentleads is joined. Another contact or binding post 13, secured to the upper side of the insulation, has an arm 14, that projects toward the key-block S in such proximity that when the oblong key is turned to one position it makes contact and forms an electrical conducting path between the arm and slide 6, but when the block is turned to its other position this path is broken. Vith this construction there is but one piece of insulation and that supports all the parts. One binding-post, to which a circuit-wire is joined, is connected directly with a contact adapted to lie against a contact on the lamp-base, and the opposite binding-post, to which the other circuit-wire is joined, is connected through its arm by the key-block with the sliding piece on the yoke that is connected with the screw that holds the socket to the lamp, and also provides the other contact. The parts can be cheaply stamped to shape, the slide moves smoothly and evenly on its support and is permanently held in contact with the keyblock by a spring which can be of the most elastic and lasting form. No part of the cur- IOO rent passes through the spring. Consequently y its resilience and elasticity is not deleteriously affected, and it always forces the slide so that the block is thrown quickly when the key is turned open to cause a sudden break.

I claim as my invention- 1. A lamp-socket consisting of a shell with a single division of insulating material supporting binding-posts for circuitwires and contacts for a lamp, one of said contacts being connected with a conductor bearing a sliding piece, and a key adapted to make or break connection between the sliding piece and a part of one binding-post, substantially as specified.

2. A lamp-socket consisting of a shell with a single division of insulating material supporting binding-posts for circuit-wires and contacts for a lamp, one of said contacts being connected with a conductor bearing a spring-actuated sliding piece, and a key with a loosely-held block adapted to make or break connection between the sliding piece and a part of one binding -post, substantially as specified.

3. A lamp-socket consisting of a shell with a division of insulating material supporting binding-posts for circuit-wires and contacts for a lamp, one of said contacts being connected with a yoke-shaped conductor bearing a sliding piece with arms folded around the arms of the yoke, a key adapted to make or break connection between the slid-ing piece and a part of one binding-post, and a spring thrusting against the sliding piece, substantially as specified.

4. A lamp-socket consisting of a shell with a division of insulating material supporting on one side a binding-post connected with a ring on the opposite side, a binding-post with a spring-arm, a yoke-shaped piece on one side, connected with a screw on the other, said yoke bearing a sliding sprin g-actuated yoke-shaped piece, and a key the block of which is adapted to make or break connection between the sliding yoke and the arm of the binding-post, substantially as specied. l

5. A lamp-socket consisting of a shell with a single partition of insulating material, binding-posts for circuit-wires, and contacts for a lamp supported by the partition, a conductor, a sliding piece carried by said conductor, and a key carrying a block interposed between one of the binding-posts and the conductor to make the circuit when turned in contact with the sliding piece and binding-post.

JACOB S. GIBBS. Vitnesses:

H. R. WILLIAMS, C. E. BUCKLAND. 

